Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is the fifth mainstream Mortal Kombat game (though there were also two adventure games, both of which are considered among the worst games of all time- they're also working on a third, but its demo is so awesome that the game has to be good), and is also, undoubtedly, the game that saved Midway and made their upcoming titles like Fear & Respect possible. But how good is this multimillion copy-selling game? Deadly Alliance is rated M for Mature, and is on the PS2, GameCube, and X-Box. I have only played the PS2 version, though there is no major difference besides the controls. This Review will be on a scale of 6 merely because the Deception Review was as well.
Plot: 5 1/2
It is a little after Mortal Kombat 4 (though it is never said when) and Quan Chi is finding himself being hunted throughout the Netherrealm and tortured by Scorpion on a near-daily basis. One day, after yet another beating from Scorpion, Quan Chi lucks out when two Oni come by to watch the fight in order to devour the loser (you actually get more info on this in Konquest mode of Deception, but that's not important right now). The sorceror makes an offer to them- protect him from Scorpion and he will take them with him out of the Netherrealm and to Outworld. Interested, the two take him up on his offer and procede to beat down on the specter when he approaches them just outside the portal. During the confrontation, Quan Chi runs through the portal, abandoning the two Oni. Enraged, they and Scorpion all follow just before the portal itself closes. Scorpion ends up in some unknown location in Outworld, while Moloch and Drahmin wind up in a forest. Quan Chi, however, appears inside the temple of the Dragon King. There, he reads info on the Dragon King's undefeatable army and concocts a plan to resurrect it...
The sorceror goes on his way to the house of the man who can help him with his sinster plan to rule Outworld. Just outside the building, Scorpion finds Quan Chi and attacks, but is killed in the battle by being blasted into a pit of acid by Quan Chi just as the specter is about to gain revenge for his and his family's murders. Scorpion, of course, just comes back from the Netherrealm for the sixth time in the series to go after Quan Chi again. Anyway, the fight draws out the owner of the house, Shang Tsung- the villain of the first ever Mortal Kombat game- as well as the not-so-loyal advisor of the boss of 2 through Trilogy, Shao Kahn. With this sorceror's ability to steal souls, and need for them to stay young, the two benefit each other: Shang Tsung will supply souls for the bodies of the undefeatable army and, in return, Quan Chi will open a gate to the heavens to allow Shang Tsung an unlimited supply of souls. The Deadly Alliance is born, and soon afterwards they kill the only two beings who can possibly stop them: Shao Kahn and the man who has stopped all of the past threats to Earthrealm and Edenia, Liu Kang. But little does Quan Chi know that Shang Tsung has two certain Oni living in the basement of his new palace...
There is a bit more to the plot that happened in the Gameboy Advance remake Tournament Edition, but that's not important.
The plot is well-written and makes complete sense (though they retconed some details from past games here and there, including Kano's nationality) and a lot of the smaller plots make sense as well: Reptile's quest to make Nitara pay for the death of his master; Shao Kahn (he had overheard Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's plot and she distracted him on purpose on his way to tell Kahn) is definitely the best example of this, especially as this causes the events that are at the center of the sequel, Deception (though, oddly, not a one of the three people involved in the plot, Reptile, Nitara, and Cyrax, are even playable in it, though that makes perfect sense once you see Reptile's ending).
Graphics: 6
The graphics are very nice, looking realistic but at the same time looking sort of cartoony, which is a nice look for this game. The blood looks fairly realistic and most of the backgrounds are very nice too. No real complaints here. Well, okay, one: they could've put a lot more effort into the Shokan seen in the Drum Arena; it looks worse than Goro did in 4 (or Deception, for that matter).
Sound: 6
The sounds are similar to those in Deception, and the background themes themselves are all quite nice. There's nothing else to say here really, but you get my point that the music is pretty good. Oh, and there's also a cool music video in the Krypt that shows parts of the Quan Chi vs Scorpion fight in front of Shang Tsung's house.
Fighters: 6
This game has one of the greatest rosters in fighting game history, mainly because its new characters are mostly excellent. It has some classic characters, like Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Kung Lao, and Sub-Zero, and some new ones like Mavado and Li Mei, and most of them are excellent. Oddly, no one who debuted in 3, Ultimate 3, or Trilogy is in the game besides Cyrax, however. What is particularly odd is this: Quan Chi is the only character to appear in Mortal Kombat 4 who is in the game, despite the medallion he stole from Shinnok in Mythologies (one of the adventure games and the one that was used to build up nearly all of MK4's story) being the center piece of both 4 and DA. You'd think that Fujin (who became the official protector of Earthrealm in MK4) or Tanya(who worked for Quan Chi in MK4 and was also billed as having worked for the Deadly Alliance in Deception) would have been involved, but no. Quan Chi's it.
Endings: 5 1/2
The endings for this game are for the most part very nice, but some of them leave a lot to be desired. For example, a lot of endings are absolutly absurd (Quan Chi's ending of Liu Kang's soul possessing Kano, for instance) and others leave mysteries in them that are never actually resolved because they're not canon (what became of Quan Chi and Drahmin in Drahmin's ending, for instance- come to think about it, Quan Chi's in a lot of the worst endings...). The best endings are probably Raiden's (because Onaga wound up appearing as Deception's main enemy you can expect Moloch and Drahmin as the main baddies in MK7 and Nitara as the main one in MK8, I s'pose) and the Reptile-Cyrax-Nitara-Blaze endings.
Konqest: 3 1/2
Konquest in this game is rather pitiful. All you do is do ten missions with each character in the game (and basically all these missions are doing combos). And what is your reward for these hours of pointless beatings? You get two special characters who are among the worst in MK history (though, to be fair, at least Blaze looks cool- the same can't be said for Mokap). Enjoy!
Stages: 3
All of the stages in this game look nice, but the problem is that there is no real difference from one to the next besides the backgrounds with the exception of the Acid Bath (where glass-Buddha things spit acid onto the course every now and then) and Moloch's Lair (which is pretty small compared to the others and also has some pillars you can knock people through). There are no extra levels, no stage fatalities, and no stage weapons whatsoever. As there were stage fatalities and weapons in 4, I find the latter two very puzzling.
Krypt: 4 1/2
The Krypt is much more extensive than it is in the sequel, and with good reason: there are many coffins containing money or even nothing when there are no coffins with either in the sequel. Also many things, like the standard bios of the starting characters, are locked from the start, unlike in Deception. The main complaint here, however, is that you basically have to guess around from coffin to coffin to find characters, which can cause you to waste tons of money buying the most expensive caskets (cruel creators actually put a lot of the characters in some of the caskets that cost around 500 or so rather than the big higher-costing ones). The game saves automatically any time you buy a casket, so you can't just cheat.
Arcade and Versus: 5
These two modes are both well-developed in that all playable characters (meaning everyone in the game you can possibly fight against except Moloch) have two fighting styles and a weapon, and Moloch, the mini-boss, is tough as well (unless you're using a style like Shaolin Fist or Dragon or a weapon like Nunchaku, in which case he is ridiculously easy). The only real problems here are that there is no way to break a combo you're being hit with after the first hit has landed and some characters can impale people, which, though it causes them to lose their weapon, will cause their opponent to gradually bleed to death, making the game far too easy for people like Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Shang Tsung, and Li Mei. Not many characters have these, however.
Fun Factor!: 6
The game is certainly fun, especially if you're fighting against an opponent who actually uses combos instead of just hitting you with cheap moves like Impales and the Eye Laser. Luckily, computers are cheap like this but some players are so...
Overall: 5 1/2
Deadly Alliance is a great game, and is definitely worth the money (especially seeing as how you can now buy a copy new for just 20 bucks). I recommend it if you don't have the money for Deception, or if you would rather spend less. However, if you want a better game rather than a cheaper one, go with Deception. Still strongly recommended, however.
Note: A few months after I did this Review, the GameCube version came out as well. Despite lacking online play, which was present in both the X-Box and PS2 versions, it has an advantage as well: the game has two extra characters in the form of Shao Kahn, the boss from Mortal Kombats 2 through Trilogy, and Goro, the mini-boss in Mortal Kombats 1 and 4 (and he was probably the toughest fight in both, especially the original). And yes, the way both were brought back into the story makes complete sense, although both died during Deadly Alliance.
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